Minister's reaction: The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, has pledged the Government will repay the money illegally taken from elderly people for long-term institutional care "as fairly and as quickly as we can".
Speaking to reporters after yesterday's Supreme Court judgment, Ms Harney said she would not give an instant account of how she intended to compensate all those entitled to repayments. But she added: "I am very determined to ensure that we seek out these individuals or their personal representatives."
She said many of those affected had died since being wrongly charged, and in these cases their representatives would be sought out and reimbursed.
Asked if it would be up to members of the public to claim back money they paid, or whether the Department would trawl through records to see who was owed money, she said she believed it would involve "a bit of both".
She said the Government had yet to consider what precise mechanism to use but "of course the money will be paid back and it will be done as fairly and as quickly as we can".
The Government would have to avoid a situation where elderly people or their estates felt they had to sue as individuals to get their money back, she said.
Acknowledging that the judgment would have "huge financial implications", she said it could cost "certainly in excess of €500 million". This was on the basis of the €550 million mentioned in the Supreme Court judgment, which was on the basis of the statute of limitations being imposed to prevent claims from more than six years ago being paid.
Ms Harney said there might be exceptions to this six-year limit in the case of people who were not compos mentis for whom the statute of limitations may go back further. She ruled out a suggestion that there could be tax increases to pay the bill, saying funding for services would be cut instead.
"It clearly will be at the expense of other things naturally," she said. Asked would the money come from the health budget, she said this was something the Government had to discuss. "But it will certainly come at the expense of future services in some area." She said the charges raised about €120 million a year, which was an important contribution to health services today. She had to reflect on how and when to bring forward legislation to allow for the imposition of these charges.
In relation to her attempt to make the past charges legal, she said the Attorney General had felt the Government could retrospectively give the authorities the right to keep the past charges. The Supreme Court had ruled that this was not the case.